From my old house, I couldn’t see what the weather was doing very well. I could see clouds and could tell when it was going to rain, but not much else.

One of the things I feel blessed about having moved into our new house is that we can see Mt. Chokai and the rice fields clear enough (still blocked by power lines that Japan can’t get enough of, although it’s nothing compared to Vietnam :p), and it means that I go outside to enjoy the rice fields more than I used to.

This is an extremely good advantage that I didn’t expect, although we did design the house so we could see Mt. Chokai from our bedroom.

Case in point my wife just pointed out that the landscape was particularly crisp right about now, so I quickly got my jandals (that’s NZ for flip flops or as Aussies call them thongs) and headed out for a looksie. I was not disappointed.

I’m always surprised to see homes here that would have perfect views of the mountains but the build tiny windows or even worse, no windows at all. Houses in NZ are practically designed to take advantage of the views where possible. Japanese houses are designed to be practical, often at the expense of aesthetics, which does bother me somewhat (especially the kitchens, they look like they’re from the 50s, and they probably are). Anyway, the views won out in our house 🙂